He may call himself "Father Joe" or "Father John", but he's no Roman Catholic priest.

"It's
awful. On Easter Sunday when people are so full of hope and gratitude
and donating to the community," said Kara Tertzaglividini.

He was
polite when he suddenly appeared at Our Lady of Mount Carmel church in
Wyandotte at the conclusion of the Polish spoken mass for the
resurrection on Easter Sunday morning.

He looked like a priest wearing a
white collar, but he's a con man.

"He tends to know things about
the parish's schedule, the layout of the church, where the collections
might be kept. He just asks if he can visit father, and he seems to know
how to get where he needs to go," said Joe Kohn with the Archdiocese of
Detroit.

The archdiocese is investigating with police and
warning that Catholic churches in Detroit, Dearborn and now Wyandotte
have been ripped off in these most unholy acts.

"I think it's
just terrible. This is a nice church. It's a nice community. It's a
shame to see

people do that," said Dawn Chmiel.

The archdiocese
says that legitimate priests have had their wallets, a watch and church
collection cash ripped off by the guy, but his largest take may have
been after Easter Sunday mass in Wyandotte.

"They have more people come to the church on Easter and Christmas than probably any

other day of the year," Chmiel said.

"Christmas
and on Easter, that's when you're going to have a lot more people in
the pews than you usually do have, so that's going to make a big
opportunity in terms of how much they can make off with. So, that
certainly seemed to be a factor here," Kohn said.

The parishes
all describe a Hispanic male in his thirties, 5'0" to 5'3" tall,
weighing 130 to 150 pounds with a receding hairline. He was wearing or
carrying a white collar.

He's also been seen with a larger, white
man in his late fifties or sixties. His height is 6'0" or taller and he
weighs between 225 to 235 pounds.

The parishes need to pay bills out of the Sunday collection, but the money is also used for needy families in the community.

"Mount
Carmel has done so much to help this community, which really needs help
right now. To hear that somebody would prey upon a church is so
disheartening," Tertzaglividini said.

He was able to celebrate
Easter Mass, but was detained and brought to the police station, on
charges of of having baptized people.

It is yet another violation of religious freedom by the authorities of Lang Son, K'Bang County (central Vietnam), in the area of the Montagnards and it happened to Bishop Michael Hoang Duc Oanh, who was previously prevented from celebrating mass for Christmas in the same village.

In view of Easter, the bishop had sent numerous petitions
to the authorities at all levels, asking for permission to celebrate
Mass in a village where it has never been possible to celebrate the
Eucharist. Permission was granted.

But when Msgr. Duc Oanh arrived, along with a
priest, he found a hostile atmosphere because police and women of the
Communist League women outnumbered the faithful, controlling and mocking
the Catholics and the bishop.

A long queue of Catholics requested permission to confess.

The
celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation took place to the sound
of laughter and jokes at the gestures of the faithful.

And after the Mass, the bishop and the priest were brought to the police station and subjected to interrogation for hours.

The
officials accused the bishop of violating the permit that "only allowed
the celebration of Easter Mass, as he had also" baptised persons ","
deliberately exceeding what was allowed”.

The bishop protested, denying that he had "baptized
people," he explained that he had only helped the faithful to reconcile
themselves with God.

"Before eating - he said - you wash your hands. Likewise, before attending the Mass, we wash ourselves, reconciling ourselves with God."

The concern of the communist authorities and their
charges are explained by the fact that the diocese is witnessing a large
number of conversions, with 50 thousand baptisms over the past two
years.

The Maltese Catholic Church has
defended its Ecclesiastical Tribunal’s right to exclude pro-divorce
lawyers from representing clients, as happened to the head of the
pro-divorce lobby, Deborah Schembri.

At a press conference, Dr Schembri said that the tribunal
informed her that she could no longer represent clients after being
accused of spreading false information on the indissolubility of
marriage.

She remarked that the decision would affect her income, and was waiting
to determine whether the decision was permanent or temporary.

In a statement issued this evening, the Curia said that, “without
referring to any particular case,” the exclusion of advocates was
justifiable in a number of cases, quoting Canon Law to back its case.

“Furthermore from the Album should be removed... those who agree with or
are active in associations or movements which promote ways of thinking
or acting that are contrary to the faith and the Catholic teachings
about morals, or defend proposals and advice about civil order which go
against the precepts of natural and Christian law,” the statement read,
quoting from the 1988 Apostolic Letter Justi Judicis. It also quoted the
Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and Pope John Paul II to
back its case.

“The Ecclesiastical Authorities need to take such decisions because the
advocate’s role is not only to defend the interests of his/her client
but also to defend the validity of marriage as a life-long commitment.
Embracing divorce hinders this aspect of the advocate’s mission in the
tribunal,” the statement read.

It said that advocates were informed about these norms during their
years of formation, and while they remained free to make their own
choices – even to favour divorce – this had its consequences.

“The procedure comes into action when a client proposes an advocate to
assist him in the Tribunal. It is at that moment that the Tribunal
informs the client of the decision about the advocate,” the Curia said.

While billboards, posters and festive decorations have been erected
all over Rome to celebrate the upcoming beatification of the late Pope
John Paul II next week, another set of posters around town is calling
for charges of “crimes against humanity” to be laid against his
successor, Benedict XVI, at the International Criminal Court at the
Hague.

Last February, two German lawyers delivered a book-length complaint
to the court, alleging that the pope, named in the complaint as Dr.
Joseph Ratzinger, is “maintaining and driving a global totalitarian
regime of coercion that subjects its members and with terrifying threats
that pose a risk to health.”

The posters appeared this week all over Rome and are published in
tandem with a website in Italian, English, German, French and Spanish,
calling on readers to join the effort to have the pope charged.

Christian Sailer and Gert-Joachim Hetzel have based their charges on
the pope’s maintenance of what they call a “lethal” ban on the use of
condoms for the prevention of HIV/AIDS.

“If a coercive cult was now widespread in Africa and its members were
forbidden to make use of condoms, with the threat of serious
punishment, it could be attributed to the leaders of the sect
responsible for every outbreak of HIV / AIDS and of deaths caused by
this ban, and started the process against them,” said the complaint.

“Can he be any different just because the sect is called a coercive ‘church’ and its leader claims to be infallible?”

The two say that Pope Benedict has established and maintained “a
global system designed to silence and measures for dealing with crimes
of a sexual nature committed by Catholic priests, which facilitates the
continuous repetition of these.”

Although some mainstream media outlets, including the Irish Times,
have run with attention-grabbing headlines, legal experts have called
the matter a “crank case.”

Media have largely ignored the affiliation of
the two lawyers with “Universal Life,” a cult based in Würzburg,
Germany, that follows the teachings of self-proclaimed “prophetess”
Gabriele Wittek, who claims to receive messages directly from Jesus
Christ.

Sailer is also a noted “animal rights” activist and has written
articles promoting the concept of constitutional rights for animals.

The campaign is accompanied by a book, titled in Italian “Il caso del
Papa,” and in English “Calling the Pope to Account,” that accuses Pope
Benedict of leading an organization that uses “terrifying threats of the
eternal torments of hell” to “lead countless people into an irrational
psychological and mental dependency, robbing them of the ability to make
their own decisions of conscience in all areas of their life.”

The website offers readers an opportunity to share their ideas about the effort.

Italian Cardinal Camillio Ruini has told journalists that he was
given a signed petition at the conclave that elected Pope Benedict to
push for fast-track sainthood for the recently deceased Pope John Paul
II.

“The beatification was asked for inside the conclave.”

The scoop
arrives from an Italian news agency just days before the solemn
ceremony in which Benedict XVI will become the first Pope in 11
centuries to proclaim “blessed” his immediate predecessor.

Cardinal Ruini told AGI news wire how a large group of Cardinals had
signed a petition calling on the next pope, still not yet elected, to
waive the standing five-year minimum wait for the process of
beatification to begin in the case of John Paul.

“Entering the conclave, a letter was given to me signed by many
Cardinals who joined in the popular request (heard after John Paul’s
death) to begin the process for sainthood right away,” said Ruini, who
also served at the time as Vicar of Rome.

“The letter was given to me
because the Cardinals didn’t know who would be elected in the conclave.”

MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHERFOR THE 48th WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS

15 MAY 2011 FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Theme: "Proposing Vocations in the Local Church"

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

The 48th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, to be celebrated on 15
May 2011, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, invites us to reflect on the theme: “Proposing Vocations in the Local Church”.
Seventy years ago, Venerable Pius XII established the Pontifical Work of
Priestly Vocations. Similar bodies, led by priests and members of the lay
faithful, were subsequently established by Bishops in many dioceses as a
response to the call of the Good Shepherd who, “when he saw the crowds, had
compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd”, and went
on to say: “The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. Pray therefore
the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest!”(Mt 9:36-38).

The work of carefully encouraging and supporting
vocations finds a radiant
source of inspiration in those places in the Gospel where Jesus calls
his
disciples to follow him and trains them with love and care. We should
pay close attention to the way that Jesus called his closest
associates to proclaim the Kingdom of God (cf. Lk 10:9). In the first place, it is clear that the first thing he did was to pray
for them: before calling them, Jesus spent the night alone in prayer, listening
to the will of the Father (cf. Lk 6:12) in a spirit of interior detachment from mundane concerns. It is Jesus’
intimate conversation with the Father which results in the calling of his
disciples. Vocations to the ministerial priesthood and to the consecrated life are first
and foremost the fruit of constant contact with the living God and insistent
prayer lifted up to the “Lord of the harvest”, whether in parish communities, in
Christian families or in groups specifically devoted to prayer for vocations.

At the beginning of his public life, the Lord called some fishermen on the shore
of the Sea of Galilee: “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men”
(Mt 4:19). He revealed his messianic mission to them by the many
“signs” which
showed his love for humanity and the gift of the Father’s mercy.
Through his words and his way of life he prepared them to carry on his
saving
work. Finally, knowing “that his hour had come to depart out of this
world to
the Father” (Jn 13:1), he entrusted to them the memorial of his death and resurrection, and
before ascending into heaven he sent them out to the whole world with the
command: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19).

It is a challenging and uplifting invitation that Jesus addresses to those to
whom he says: “Follow me!”. He invites them to become his friends, to listen attentively to his word and to
live with him. He teaches them complete commitment to God and to the extension
of his kingdom in accordance with the law of the Gospel: “Unless a grain of
wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears
much fruit ” (Jn 12:24). He invites them to leave behind their own narrow agenda and
their notions of self-fulfilment in order to immerse themselves in another will,
the will of God, and to be guided by it. He gives them an experience of
fraternity, one born of that total openness to God (cf. Mt 12:49-50)
which becomes the hallmark of the community of Jesus: “By this everyone
will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for
one another” (Jn 13:35).

It is no less challenging to follow Christ today. It
means learning to keep our
gaze fixed on Jesus, growing close to him, listening to his word and
encountering him in the sacraments; it means learning to conform our
will to
his. This requires a genuine school of formation for all those who
would
prepare themselves for the ministerial priesthood or the consecrated
life under
the guidance of the competent ecclesial authorities. The Lord does not
fail to call people at every stage of life to share in his
mission and to serve the Church in the ordained ministry and in the
consecrated
life. The Church is “called to safeguard this gift, to esteem it and
love it. She is responsible for
the birth and development of priestly vocations” (John Paul II,
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
Pastores Dabo Vobis, 41).

Particularly in these times, when the
voice of the Lord seems to be drowned out by “other voices” and his invitation
to follow him by the gift of one’s own life may seem too difficult, every
Christian community, every member of the Church, needs consciously to feel
responsibility for promoting vocations. It is important to encourage and support those who show clear signs of a call
to priestly life and religious consecration, and to enable hem to feel the
warmth of the whole community as they respond “yes” to God and the Church. I
encourage them, in the same words which I addressed to those who have already
chosen to enter the seminary: “You have done a good thing. Because people will
always have need of God, even in an age marked by technical mastery of the world
and globalization: they will always need the God who has revealed himself in
Jesus Christ, the God who gathers us together in the universal Church in order
to learn with him and through him life’s true meaning and in order to uphold and
apply the standards of true humanity” (Letter to Seminarians, 18 October 2010).

It is essential that every local Church become more sensitive and attentive to
the pastoral care of vocations, helping children and young people in particular at every level of family,
parish and associations – as Jesus did with his disciples - to grow into a
genuine and affectionate friendship with the Lord, cultivated through personal
and liturgical prayer; to grow in familiarity with the sacred Scriptures and thus to listen
attentively and fruitfully to the word of God; to understand that entering into
God’s will does not crush or destroy a person, but instead leads to the
discovery of the deepest truth about ourselves; and finally to be generous and fraternal in relationships with others, since
it is only in being open to the love of God that we discover true joy and the
fulfilment of our aspirations.

“Proposing Vocations in the Local Church” means having the courage, through an
attentive and suitable concern for vocations, to point out this challenging way of following Christ which, because it is so
rich in meaning, is capable of engaging the whole of one’s life.

I address a particular word to you, my dear brother
Bishops. To ensure the
continuity and growth of your saving mission in Christ, you should
“foster priestly and religious vocations as much as possible, and should
take a
special interest in missionary vocations” (Christus Dominus, 15). The Lord needs you to cooperate with him in ensuring that his call reaches the
hearts of those whom he has chosen. Choose carefully those who work in the Diocesan Vocations Office, that
valuable means for the promotion and organization of the pastoral care of
vocations and the prayer which sustains it and guarantees its effectiveness.

I
would also remind you, dear brother Bishops, of the concern of the universal
Church for an equitable distribution of priests in the world. Your openness to
the needs of dioceses experiencing a dearth of vocations will become a blessing
from God for your communities and a sign to the faithful of a priestly service
that generously considers the needs of the entire Church.

The Second Vatican Council explicitly reminded us that
“the duty of fostering vocations pertains to the whole Christian
community, which
should exercise it above all by a fully Christian life” (Optatam Totius, 2).I wish, then, to say a special word of acknowledgment and
encouragement to those who work closely in various ways with the priests in
their parishes.

In particular, I turn to those who can offer a specific contribution to the
pastoral care of vocations: to priests, families, catechists and leaders of parish groups.

I ask priests to
testify to their communion with their bishop and their fellow priests, and thus
to provide a rich soil for the seeds of a priestly vocation. May families be “animated
by the spirit of faith and love and by the sense of duty” (Optatam Totius, 2) which is capable of helping children to welcome generously the call to
priesthood and to religious life. May catechists and leaders of Catholic groups
and ecclesial movements, convinced of their educational mission, seek to “guide
the young people entrusted to them so that these will recognize and freely
accept a divine vocation” (ibid.).

Dear brothers and sisters, your commitment to the promotion and care of
vocations becomes most significant and pastorally effective when carried out in
the unity of the Church and in the service of communion. For this reason, every
moment in the life of the Church community – catechesis, formation meetings,
liturgical prayer, pilgrimages – can be a precious opportunity for awakening in
the People of God, and in particular in children and young people, a sense of
belonging to the Church and of responsibility for answering the call to
priesthood and to religious life by a free and informed decision.

The ability to foster vocations is a hallmark of the vitality of a local
Church. With trust and perseverance let us invoke the aid of the Virgin Mary,
that by the example of her own acceptance of God’s saving plan and her powerful
intercession, every community will be more and more open to saying “yes” to the
Lord who is constantly calling new labourers to his harvest. With this hope, I
cordially impart to all my Apostolic Blessing.

They may not recognize him as a saint, but Muslims in Bosnia are
considering honouring the late Pope John Paul II with a monument in the
heart of Sarajevo.

Because of his support for inter-religious and
intercultural dialogue, "I think that Pope John Paul II is one of the
most important figures of the 20th century," the head of the Bosnian
Islamic Community, Mustafa Ceric, told The Associated Press.

Ceric prayed for world peace with the late pope in Assisi.

The
almost 90 per cent Muslim population the endured the brutal Serb siege
of Sarajevo during the 1992-95 war waited "every Sunday to hear his
messages of hope," as the pope never failed to call for an end of their
suffering, Ceric said.

"This is why I think he deserves to have a statue here in the city of Sarajevo," he said.

John
Paul had wanted to visit Sarajevo at the height of the war in September
1994 but the trip was cancelled after the Serbs said they wouldn't
guarantee his safety.

He visited Sarajevo a year after the war
ended and tens of thousands jammed the streets to welcome him.

In front
of the main Sarajevo Cathedral, he shook hands with the crowd and
stroked the foreheads of weeping people, many of them Muslims.

City authorities are now considering erecting the statue in that location in front of the cathedral.

He
visited Bosnia again in 2003, travelling to the predominantly Serb city
of Banja Luka where he apologized for crimes committed by Roman
Catholic Nazi supporters on Christian Orthodox Serbs during World War
II.

"In the 21st century we are missing such a personality as John Paul II was," Ceric said.

The theme
underscores the responsibility of all in the local Church to foster
vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.

The message notes
that parish priests, families, catechists and youth ministers are
invited to take advantage of “every moment in the life of the Church
community” for prayer and pastoral activity that give children and young
people a sense of “belonging to the Church and of responsibility for
answering the call to priesthood and religious life by a free and
informed decision.”

“We all have a responsibility to invite young people to consider if God
is calling them to the priesthood or consecrated life,” said Archbishop
Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee
on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations.

“Such a call challenges our
deepest convictions and leads to the discovery of the deepest truth
about ourselves.Those who are being called by God deserve our prayers
and encouragement to respond generously and without reservation.”

The U.S. Bishops’ website, http://www.foryourvocation.org/ or http://www.portuvocacion.org/,
and their Facebook page and other social media outlets, provide
resources to help laity and clergy build a culture of vocations in home
and parishes. Site elements include videos of priests and religious men
and women giving witness to their vocations, videos of testimonies from
parents whose children have answered a vocation to the priesthood and
consecrated life, prayers and discernment resources for men and women,
down-loadable lesson plans for educators, and retreat resources for
parishes.

“We hope that every member of the Church will encourage and promote
vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life at home, in the parish,
at school and in their community,” said Mercy Sister Mary Joanna
Ruhland, associate director of the Vocations Secretariat.

Stories of miraculous healings attributed to late pope John Paul II
are being posted on a Vatican website that has already collected
thousands of reports ahead of his beatification on May 1.

Tales of
lives saved, sicknesses cured and families reunited from across Europe
have been told in Spanish, French, English, Portuguese, Polish and
Italian on the Holy See's beatification website (www.karol-wojtyla.org).

John
Paul II was set on the road to beatification after the Vatican
confirmed he had worked a miracle -- the healing, apparently
unexplainable by science, of a French nun affected by Parkinson's who
had prayed to be cured.

The Vatican will have to prove a second
miracle to make him a saint and since 2006 has been collecting the
testimonies of those who say the ex-pontiff has miraculously intervened
in their lives.

Many stories speak of "sudden" recoveries from
cancer or other devastating illnesses "against the odds." Others
describe how the ex-pontiff helped them through moments of despair at
work or with tumultuous love stories.

Some confessed they had been
living an irreligious life or worshipping pagan gods before
rediscovering their Catholic faith thanks to his intervention.

Others
wrote that John Paul II appeared to them in a vision or dream during
high-risk surgery or life-threatening accidents, helping them to fight
for their lives or bear the pain.

Upwards of 400,000 people are
expected to descend on Rome for the beatification of the charismatic
pope, who reigned for nearly 27 years before succumbing to Parkison's
disease in 2005.

The beatification period was fast-tracked as
mourners clamoured for John Paul II to be made a saint.

The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association (PTAA) faces imminent
closure unless it can raise new funds, according to its chief executive.

The
organisation, founded in 1898 by Jesuit priest Fr James Cullen and
characterised by its ‘pioneer pin’ is projecting a deficit of €100,000
for 2011.

At its height, the organisation promoting temperance had 360,000 members. Today it claims between 125,000 and 150,000.

In an open letter to members posted on its website, chief executive
Padraig Brady said the deficit had arisen from the decline in the Pioneer magazine circulation and other income sources.

He said the organisation had now reached “crisis point” and needed an “urgent injection" of funds.

“Sadly it is in these times of crisis and uncertainty that people turn
to alcohol and drug abuse to escape the unbearable reality of living.
Our appeal is as much for these people and their families as it is for
our valued members and our association,” he writes.

“As Pioneers we are known the length and breath of Ireland for our
tradition of giving to others. The time is well overdue for us now to
give to ourselves. Our failure to do so may have potentially dire
consequences for as an organisation and for the innumerable individuals
and families to whom we offer help.”

Mr Brady appealed to members to donate at least €10 in order to keep the organisation afloat.

It is hoped that the appeal will raise the €300,000 needed to avert closure.

Mr Brady admitted to the Irish Catholic newspaper this week that his organisation “had failed to move with the times and put our message in modern language”.

However, he said, the organisation was “first and foremost a movement
based on prayer” and that there was “quite a bit of feeling that we
should concentrate on this rather than trying to be things that we are
not.

A friend and I had
hitchhiked from Dublin to Rome, where we stayed at the Convent of San
Clemente near the Colosseum for two weeks.

We had both commenced studies
for the priesthood the previous year.

One morning we received an
invitation from an Irish priest, Fr John Magee, to meet the Pope. Fr
Magee had been private secretary to Pope Paul VI from 1974 until the
pontiff’s death four years later and had also served during the 33-day
pontificate of Pope John Paul I.

Our introduction to Fr Magee had been
arranged by an Irish Dominican, Fr Lambert Greenan, the English-language
editor of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, and a friar at
San Clemente.

The pontiff was staying for a brief period in the
Tower of St John in the Vatican gardens while his apartments were being
renovated.

Fr Magee had arranged for us to be escorted through the
Vatican gardens and up to the tower, which was built as a fortification
for Pope Nicholas V in the mid-15th century.

The round tower opens
into a hallway, in front of which is set a lift. The Irish priest came
down in the lift first to greet us. He returned to fetch the pontiff,
and about quarter of an hour later the lift door opened once more and
out stepped Pope John Paul.

I recall how he walked into the hallway,
exuding energy and cheerfulness. We were introduced to him along with
other guests. After a short greeting, the Pope suggested we have our
photograph taken by his photographer.

Having blessed us, he then went
out through the door, where a car was waiting to take him to the
Apostolic Palace for the day’s audiences.

Fr Magee also got into
the car, and I looked out the door to signal my appreciation for his
kindness in arranging the meeting. He discreetly nodded to me.

The Pope,
however, leaned forward and, with a broad smile on his face, gave me
the “thumbs-up” sign.

Over the next 25 years, I met Pope John Paul
on some 30 occasions. Several times in the early years I met him in the
gardens of Castelgandolfo, when I spent my summers as a seminarian
working as a guide in St Peter’s Basilica.

I became a friend of Fr
Magee, who often invited me out for the afternoon to Castelgandolfo,
where we walked in the magnificent gardens. It was a most relaxed
atmosphere and on one occasion I recall how we happened upon the pope
who was sitting at a table reading a book. We retreated before we
disturbed his concentration, but I remember being surprised to see him
wearing white tennis shoes underneath his soutane.

Often in the
evenings, while in his country residence, he invited guests to join him
in the gardens after supper. These were informal gatherings, usually
made up of young people. The pope would sit in a wicker armchair while
we sat on the ground around him, asking questions and sometimes
exchanging jokes.

When the evening ended, around 10.30, we escorted the
pope back to the villa where we said goodnight. I remember also on one
occasion noticing that the pope wore aftershave, which struck me as
rather odd.

Of course, it was perfectly natural. I was usually fortunate
to get a lift back into Rome with Arturo Mari, the pontiff’s
photographer, or some Swiss Guards who had finished their duty and were
returning to the Vatican.

After ordination, I often concelebrated
Mass either in his country residence or in the Vatican.

What struck me
was the profound silence in the chapel. It was so different from the
vast public Masses celebrated before millions around the globe. When
Mass ended the Pope spent 15 minutes in silent thanksgiving, kneeling at
his prie-dieu in front of the tabernacle. He then came into the
corridor where he met his visitors.

I noticed that the Pope
enjoyed when people spoke to him as so many were overcome with emotion
and simply burst into tears.

As a linguist, he enjoyed bantering in
various languages. On one occasion I was with a fellow classmate, the
nephew of Cardinal Desmond Connell of Dublin. I told him that this was
the Archbishop of Dublin’s nephew.

“Ah!” he said with mock
surprise, looking at the young man. “His nephew is the Archbishop of
Dublin?” I explained that it was his uncle. “So, now you tell me he is
the uncle of the Archbishop of Dublin?” he replied. I think he enjoyed
my discomfort.

On another occasion, I was with John McCaffrey from
Northern Ireland. We both had met the pope many times and John asked the
pope to autograph a photograph.

The pope sat down and good humouredly
signed the image for his cheeky Irish guests. John is now a fundraiser
and assisted Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain last year.

Meeting
the pope so often, I noticed tiny details. I was surprised that the
upper buttons of his soutane always showed signs of wear, as did the
piping around his collar. Surely there was somebody who would mend these
for him, I thought. I also noticed that when he met individuals in a
line, he appeared to look not at the person presented but to the next
visitor.

Mgr Vincent Tran Ngoc Thu, his Vietnamese secretary, told me
that the Pope was deaf in one ear, and that this was his way of
straining to hear in his good ear.

I also observed that when he
met people, many of whom spoke different languages, he repeated the last
words which they had said. “Holy Father, I am from Paris,” one might
say.

The reply was usually: “Ah, Paris. God bless Paris.” It was a way
of conserving his mental energies.

Pope John Paul had very strong
hands. His mother’s family came from farming stock and his handshake was
firm. I noticed that he had developed a tremor in his left hand while
celebrating Mass in Castelgandolfo in July 1991. It was the first sign
of the Parkinson’s disease which was to destroy his frame.

I met
Sister Tobiana on several occasions. She was one of the five Polish nuns
who looked after the papal apartments.

She was a nurse and I was deeply
struck by her sincere love for the pope and especially the care she
showed him in his old age and illness. It was to her that he whispered
his last words on earth and it was she who held his hand as he “slipped
away to the House of the Lord”.

As the years went by, the strong,
athletic man shrank in size but he grew in my appreciation.

His
acceptance of physical illness and pain was extraordinary and his sheer
determination was impressive.

The last time I saw him was in the
papal apartments one Sunday evening six months before he died. His face
was now a mask.

Yet behind the pain-filled eyes was the soul of a man
who burned with a deep love of Jesus Christ. He remains my inspiration
and I realise that I am blessed to have met him.

Fr Michael Collins’s book, John Paul II: The Path to Sainthood, will be published by Columba Press on May 15.

Irish Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has asked that the Catholic
Church be divested of half of the 3,000 national schools in Ireland
over which it currently has patronage.

These “Catholic” schools make up about 90 percent of the state
provided national schools in the country.

The others are under the
patronage of either other religious denominations or are
non-denominational in character.

He has launched a Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Public
Sector, chaired by UCD Professor Emeritus of Education John Coolahan, to
hear views of concerned groups as well as the general public, as a
prelude to issuing specific recommendations to the minister by the end
of the year.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin acknowledged that the increasing portion
of students in the Dublin Archdiocese who are either not Catholic and/or
not religiously affiliated would justify a substantial reduction in the
percentage of schools under the Church’s patronage.

The Catholic Council of Bishops, reflecting views more typical of
rural Ireland, would accept some reduction, but much smaller than what
Martin would accept, never mind Quinn’s more ambitious suggestion.

One can better understand the practice of church patronage by
examining the origins of the Irish national school system in the 1830s
by the British government, decades before doing so in England.

The
original aim was for non-denominational schools, with the students
attending separate classes along denominational lines for religious
instruction.

At first the Irish Catholic hierarchy was generally supportive, with
most of the opposition coming from the then established Church of
Ireland.

However, within a decade the goal had generally fallen by the
wayside, as less than 5 percent of the more than four thousands schools
were non-denominational.

That original aim was doomed from the start. Since many of the
schools were run religious orders, they were de facto denominational.

Also, public opinion, which intertwined religion with political
sentiment, whether nationalist or unionist, opposed non-denominational
schools.

It must be remembered, also, that the original scheme, did not call
for secular education. It had the same character as a current program in
Northern Ireland, where, admittedly in only a small minority of
schools, there is separate religious instruction and sacramental
preparation, while students attend all other classes, including ones in
religious history and comparative religion, together.

One suspects that Quinn’s ultimate agenda is much greater than
promoting interdenominational education.

He, as becomes his own
atheistic philosophical perspective, would prefer entirely secular
schooling and to leave religious instruction to parents or
denominational “Sunday Schools.”

Quinn is correct in calling for a root and branch re-examination of
Irish education that will ask questions other than giving more money to
schools and teachers.

His anxiety is appropriate in view of recent
international studies that lowered Irish ranking from former “world
class” to average or below average in literacy, science and math, and
which found one quarter of Irish teenagers to be functionally
illiterate.

This stands in stark contrast to the fact that the portion of the
Irish population in 30-to-34 age bracket with college education is the
highest in the European Union.

However, to imply that academic competence is weakened by the time
spent in the school day studying religion is unwarranted, especially
since the amount of time spent on religion has remained the same as it
was when Irish educational standards were being internationally
acclaimed.

Former Taoiseach John Bruton has argued that Quinn’s claim that too
much school time is wasted on religion could as easily be made about the
even greater amount of time spent teaching the national language that
very few ultimately use in their lives, or about the fewer schools days
per year in Ireland than elsewhere in Europe.

Quinn also doesn’t seem to have any objection to school time being
spent on other matters, even less academic than religion, such as
sports, health education, and civics.

As for the practicality of teaching religious instruction in the home
or on weekends, Bruton effectively demonstrates that such would work
very much against, in most cases, thorough religious formation.

Parents
inculcate religious values more by example than formal instruction, and
generally are unprepared and unready to give formal religious classes to
their children.

No doubt religious belief has declined significantly among the Irish,
and immigration has brought thousands into the country who are not
Christians, never mind Catholics.

Obviously the state-supported
education to which they are entitled should not require their taking
Catholic religious classes or being immersed in a Catholic atmosphere.

On the other hand, the majority, who are still Catholic, should be as
equally entitled to state support for the Catholic education they
desire.

While Catholic schools in a diverse school system should receive
comparable support as any other school, the Church should be wary of a
number of things.

For instance, religious identity must not used as a means of social exclusivity without any real interest in religion itself.

Secondly, the Church must make sure that the schools remaining under
its patronage not be staffed by faculty who are either lukewarm or are
non-believers.

Thirdly, the existing light-weight and superficial religion
curriculum must be strengthened.

The necessity of such is demonstrated
by the results of a survey of young Irish people, aged 15 to 24.

Only
one in 20 of whom could quote the First Commandment, about a third of
whom knew where Jesus was born or what Easter celebrated, and about a
sixth knew what transubstantiation was.

For the church to act as patron in national schools where faculty are
lukewarm and religious curriculum is superficial will only intensify
the growing pattern in Ireland of infrequent Mass attendance.

It would
also make youth cynical and indifferent rather than religious.

A new survey shows that 51 per cent of people in the world believe in God. Only 18 per cent don’t and 17 per cent are undecided.

More than 18,000 people from 23 countries participated in the poll
conducted by global research company, Ipsos Social Research Institute.

The poll also found that 51 per cent believe that there is an
afterlife while 23 per cent believe they will just "cease to exist".
Around a quarter (26 per cent) say they do not know what will happen
after death.

Bobby Duffy, managing director of Ipsos, told Reuters, "It may seem
to many that we live in a secular world but this survey shows just how
important spiritual life is to so many global citizens with half saying
they believe in a spiritual being and the same proportion in an
afterlife of some sort or other.

"The other really interesting thing is that such a large proportion
of the remaining people are just not sure there is a spiritual
explanation either for how they got here or what happens after they
die."

According to the survey, “definitive belief in a God or Supreme
Being" is highest in Indonesia (93 per cent) and Turkey (91 per cent),
followed by Brazil (84 per cent), South Africa (83 per cent) and Mexico
(78 per cent).

Those most likely to believe in “many Gods or Supreme Beings” live in
India (24 per cent), China (14 per cent) and Russia (10 per cent).

People who don’t believe in God or a Supreme Being(s) are most likely
to live in France (39 per cent), Sweden (37 per cent), Belgium (36 per
cent), Great Britain (34 per cent), Japan (33 per cent) and Germany (31
per cent).

When it comes to “the sweet hereafter-or not…” category, ultimately
half of the global population believe there is a form of afterlife. More
than half of the people in Indonesia, South Africa, and Turkey believe
in heaven or hell as opposed to the United States and Brazil, where less
than 40 per cent hold the same beliefs.

Forty percent of respondents from Mexico believe in the afterlife but not heaven or hell.

Overall, nearly a quarter do not believe in a heaven or hell.

Belief in reincarnation is highest in Hungary where 13 per cent say
“you are ultimately reincarnated”.

The belief is also popular in Brazil,
Mexico, Japan, Argentina and Australia.

People who say they “don’t know what happens” after death are mostly
located in Europe and Asia.

Meanwhile, countries where people are most
likely to believe they will cease to exist after death are South Korea
with 40 per cent, Spain with 40 per cent, France with 39 per cent, Japan
with 37 per cent and Belgium with 35 per cent saying so.

When it comes to the afterlife, Duffy stated, “There is a belief on
one side (in a Supreme Being) but there is a lot of uncertainty on the
other.

"The nature of these questions and issues is that in many cases they
are unknowable. But it reminds us that it is the case with many people
around the world."

In other findings, the survey revealed that 41 per cent believe in
human evolution, 28 per cent believe in creationism and 31 per cent are
uncertain of what to believe in.

Creationism, or the belief that human beings were in fact created by a
spiritual force such as God, is strongest in Saudi Arabia (75 per
cent), Turkey (60 per cent), Indonesia (57 per cent), and South Africa
(56 per cent).

Belief in evolution, or that the origin of man came from evolving
from other species such as apes, is popular in Sweden, Germany, China,
Belgium and Japan with over 60 percent of the population in each of the
mentioned countries holding such belief.

The city of Rome launched
beefed-up security measures in the days before the May 1 beatification
of Pope John Paul II.

Officers were even brushing up on their English to
better help the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims expected for the
event.

More security personnel and tighter passenger and baggage controls were
put into effect starting April 25 for area airports, seaports and train
stations.

Italian authorities said there would be random bag searches and ID
checks at the Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino airport, Civitavecchia seaport
and Termini train station in Rome.

People with criminal records and those who would be "potentially
dangerous for tourists" were to be "moved away from" the area in and
around Termini train station, reported the Italian daily, La Repubblica,
April 24.

Special security cameras were installed in "hot spots" in and around St.
Peter's Square where the beatification Mass will be held, the paper
reported April 23.

More than 2,000 police, military police, firefighters, traffic officers
and other security personnel were to patrol "three rings" of increasing
degrees of security around the square, it said. Police were to even
patrol the Tiber River in the area of the Vatican.

Police officers and operators responding to the emergency call number
113 had all completed intensive English language lessons so as to better
serve visitors, it said.

Officers were to do a security sweep of trash cans, manholes and street
drains in the area, parking was to be prohibited and vehicle traffic was
to be diverted away from the roads closest to the April 30 prayer vigil
at Circus Maximus and St. Peter's Square the following morning.

Only
pedestrians were to be allowed to circulate in areas determined to be
"high security," La Repubblica said.